The Blubber

Over the course of a year, trading firm Alameda Research amassed swaths of tokens ahead of affiliated crypto exchange FTX saying it would list them, according to an analysis of public blockchain data from analytics firm Argus.

On the days that FTX said it would be listing tokens between the start of 2021 and March of this year, Alameda held roughly $60 million worth of tokens combined across 18 listings of coins tied to the Ethereum blockchain, according to an analysis of public blockchain from Argus, a blockchain analytics firm.

Public data has suggested a crypto-wide issue with the timing of listings of tokens by exchanges, with traders standing to profit by acquiring coins before listings and selling them afterwards. It’s unclear if or when Alameda sold the tokens tracked by Argus. Over that time period, FTX listed almost 60 Ethereum-blockchain based tokens, the firm said.

Token listings add both liquidity and a stamp of legitimacy to tokens, and often provide a boost to a token’s trading price. Exchanges often move tokens into their cryptocurrency wallets— where coins are stored— ahead of listing them.

Because this movement can be seen on the blockchain, the digital ledger that records transactions, that can be a public tip that a platform plans to list a token. It could also be a sign that traders had prior knowledge of the listings.

“What we see is they’ve basically almost always in the month leading up to it bought into a position that they previously didn’t. It’s quite clear there's something in the market telling them they should be buying things they previously hadn’t,” said Omar Amjad, co-founder of Argus.

Spokespeople for Alameda and FTX did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In a February email to The Journal, Sam Bankman-Fried, the former chief executive of FTX, said that Alameda had the same access to information as all other market makers on the platform and that its traders didn’t have special access to client information, market data or trading.

Ties between Alameda and FTX’s financial relationship have come under scrutiny in the last week. The Journal has previously reported FTX lent billions of dollars worth of customer assets to fund risky bets by its affiliated trading firm, Alameda, setting the stage for the exchange’s implosion.